Tilt Novels & Stories

Jarek’s hand slides over my ass like a challenge, slow and deliberate, like he wants me to feel exactly where he thinks I belong. I don’t hesitate. My palm cracks across his face—sharp, loud, final. “Careful,” he says quietly, fingers digging into my hip instead of letting go. “You keep hitting men like that, someone’s going to hit back.” I tilt my chin up. “Try it.” ⸻ My parents owed Luke Jones money. I paid the debt with my body, my name, and a marriage I never agreed to. On paper, Luke is my husband. President of the Vipers MC. Untouchable. Behind closed doors, he’s a man who can’t keep an erection and punishes me for it—with fists, words, and silence. The only man that ever gave a shit a bout me was my brother, Steve. Luke’s best friend. His VP. Now Steve is dead. And Luke has finally stopped pretending. He moves Steve’s old lady into the clubhouse. Watches her. Wants her. Just like he always has. I secretly divorce him, disappear to the next town over. And I walk straight into the territory of a rival MC. Its president, Jarek Solen, notices me immediately. He’s dangerous. Controlled. Watching. The kind of man who doesn’t beg, doesn’t threaten—and doesn’t take no lightly. I refuse him anyway. Instead, I prospect his club. Earn my place the hard way. I don’t want another man. But Jarek Solen doesn’t see me as broken goods or borrowed property. He sees me as his. And when Luke realizes his wife is gone and his control is slipping—Jarek won’t hand me back. He’ll start a war. Because the Biker King doesn’t steal women. He claims what chooses him.

My wife, Andrea Cohen, has been pretending to be blind for three years while clutching onto her cane. On the night the old building of the medical university crumbles due to an earthquake, a crumbling wall completely shatters my spine. I can only scream Andrea's name hysterically in an attempt to call for help. With her eyes closed, Andrea stands by the debris while responding in my direction in a cold voice, "I can't see, so I can't feel you at all. You should crawl out to safety by yourself." But the next moment, her first love, Eugene White, lets out a surprised yell. When he's about to get struck by the falling rocks from the tremors, Andrea's eyes suddenly snap open. She tosses her cane aside and accurately avoids the metal bars and spikes that are strewn all over the ground. Without hesitation, she lunges at Eugene just to protect him from the rocks. The back of my head ends up getting pierced by a fallen slab. After I wake up from a coma, I've gone completely blind. At the same time, my intelligence has deteriorated to one of a five-year-old. Three years later, Andrea, who has become the best surgeon in the industry, looks for me everywhere like a lunatic. Finally, she spots me huddling under a bridge, where I beg for food and money. She sinks down to her knees in the snow, her eyes bloodshot. "To think that you're brutal enough to take out your own eyesight just to avoid me! Is it even worth getting reduced to this state?" I tilt my head quietly as I stare at the void with my hollow gaze. Then, I slowly dig out a blackened coin from my cracked bowl before passing it in Andrea's direction. "Your eyes are working fine, lady. Why are you feeling around on the ground just like me? Are you here to beg for food as well? I've only earned one coin, but I'll give it to you."

I step into his office, and he is already waiting behind the desk. His amber eyes lock onto mine the moment I enter—deep, intense, and unreadable, as if he is trying to reach something buried beneath everything I refuse to show. “You can’t work under me anymore, Ms. Robinson,” he says calmly. His voice is steady, controlled. Too controlled. I tilt my head slightly, pretending indifference. “Are you firing me, sir?” The word feels unfamiliar on my tongue, even now, like it carries a distance I’m not used to acknowledging. He exhales slowly and stands from his chair, closing the space between us just enough to make it harder to breathe. “I can’t continue pretending you don’t know what I want,” he replies. My fingers tighten at my side. I force myself to look away. “You know it’s not possible,” I say quietly. “You’re married.” And just like that, everything shifts. Because I know this conversation. I’ve lived it in silence long before today. Four years ago, he left to study abroad. He promised he would come back. He promised that what we had wasn’t over. So I waited. I built my life around that promise, holding on to the belief that love like ours didn’t simply end—it paused, it endured, it survived distance. We were each other’s first love. Or at least, I thought we were something that would never be replaced. But when he returned, he did not return alone. He returned as someone else’s husband. Now he stands in front of me again, no longer the boy I once knew, but a man shaped by time, choices, and consequences I was never part of. And yet, the way he looks at me tells me nothing between us has truly ended. He wants something from me. Something I am not sure I can give without losing myself in the process. And worse than that— A part of me is still waiting to find out what happens if I don’t walk away this time.